


Leverage, Season 4, Episode 10, The Queen's Gambit Job

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: Leverage
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s04e10 The Queen's Gambit Job, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 04, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:46:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25271875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode and the rest of the series. Complete.
Kudos: 8





	Leverage, Season 4, Episode 10, The Queen's Gambit Job

Open to Nate stopping a red sports car in front of a big black van, and it’s ambiguous if the van stops or not.

Three days earlier, he and Sophie flirt, she leaves, and two male proto-ducklings come in. Realising who they belong to, Nate casually pours two drinks before sliding one across the bar.

It’s stopped. “Hello, Nate.”

Sterling’s brought a chessboard, and he and Nate play. Someone is trying to get their hands on a WMD, and Sterling would like for Team Leverage to sabotage the WMD before it’s sold. To do so, a chess tournament in Dubai needs to be entered.

Nate realises Sterling has an informant involved in all this, and not denying this, Sterling nevertheless refuses to divulge who said informant might be. When asked why Nate should do this, Sterling answers, “I’ll owe you a favour.”

Upstairs, Nate, Hardison, and Sophie talk about the WMD. Sophie says they can’t trust Sterling, and agreeing, Nate says they still can’t just let terrorists get a WMD, either.

Team Leverage goes to Dubai, and once again, Hardison is wearing either an agal or keffiyeh. Eliot is trying to keep Parker from playing with things, and Hardison declares chess a sport.

Eliot objects, but this checks out to me.

The BGotW and his teenage stepdaughter, Olivia, are introduced. She clearly doesn’t want to be there, but she’s stoic in her unhappiness.

Team Leverage talks about the two, and it turns out there was a car bombing a few years ago. Olivia was unharmed, but her mother died and her stepfather was left with a limp.

Sterling appears, and when he’s laying out a problem to the case, he corrects Nate’s labelling of Olivia as BGotW’s “daughter” with “stepdaughter”. Eliot is partnered with Sterling, and does no one besides Eliot remember the time Eliot beat down Sterling?

They meet some potential terrorists, and Eliot insists on introducing himself as higher than Sterling. They get the PTs to agree to move off-site, and Hardison talks to BGotW about a possible business opportunity between the two of them. Hardison also brings up concerns about security, and BGotW demonstrates his security facilities to reassure him.

Meanwhile, Sterling is not happy Eliot has made BGotW’s team aware of Sterling’s informant.

In a suite, there’s a funny moment where Parker is standing right next to Hardison, Sterling is standing a reasonable amount away, but it’s the latter Hardison demands, “Personal space,” from.

They review the camera footage Hardison took of the security room, and Hardison is assigned to figure out how Parker can break in. Nate leaves, and it’s quickly made clear Sterling should leave, too.

At the tournament, Nate is a contestant. Via earbud, Hardison explains he’s hacked things so that Olivia will be playing against low-levels. Nate, though, will be playing against heavy-hitters.

It’s established Nate and Hardison play chess occasionally, and so far, the former has always won.

Posing as a photographer, Parker gets BGotW to stand on a box for a picture of him and Olivia.

Assigning Eliot and Sterling to work together outside the building, Nate adds, “Eliot, try not to kill Sterling.”

Sterling, by the way, has brought coffee for both of them.

“I can’t promise that!” Eliot protests.

Based on Sterling’s reaction, I don’t think he has an earbud in. He knows Eliot just responded to someone via earbud, but unless he was being sarcastic, he doesn’t know who said what on the other end.

There are chess tournament scenes, Nate has to resort to cheating with Sophie’s help, and this is about as far as I’ll go in trying to review chess things until Olivia and Nate meet.

Out in a car, for some reason, despite not liking the coffee, Eliot continues drinking it. His lack of suspicion seems out-of-character to me. He and Sterling argue over Lee Harvey Oswald’s alleged assassination of President Kennedy.

For the record, I use the term ‘alleged’ only due to the fact Oswald was never convicted. I do have sympathy for President Kennedy’s loved ones, but at this point, I don’t think it ever can be proven whether Oswald or someone else killed him, and so, I really don’t have any horse in this particular debate.

In the suite, Parker has a freak-out over the heaviness of the special boots she needs to wear to break-in, and empathetic Hardison is gentle and supportive. He makes it clear she can rely on him and the rest of the team now.

They end up dancing, and it’s a sweet moment intermixed with sexual/romantic tension.

Meanwhile, it’s revealed Sterling drugged the coffee, and he leaves an unconscious Eliot in a computer server room.

Next, Parker is getting ready to break in, and Hardison is trying to figure out why Eliot’s comms are off.

Now, Olivia and Nate begin their match.

Eliot wakes up to find his earbud smashed.

Hardison hums over the comms to help Parker, and Sophie is happy one of her daughter’s future husbands is doing such a sweet thing.

Olivia and Nate talk, and he has to spin things when she hears him say something over the earbud. Also, “carbs” are something this teenage girl lists as being afraid of. I’m not happy with this, but moving on, she says she’s not afraid of being afraid. Her dad, her real dad, taught her this.

Over to Eliot, he fusses, “The one time I need Hardison-”

Yeah, sure, Eliot. This is the only time in around four years you’ve ever needed him. I give you around a year or two before you finally admit you’ve been needing him and Parker practically all your life.

There’s a problem in the security room, and Hardison tries to figure out how to help Parker.

At the tournament, one of the losers causes a scene by accusing Sophie of sabotaging his match. She’s led away by security, and Nate makes a move that makes BGotW suspicious. I can’t tell if Olivia is suspicious, too, or not.

Over to Parker, she’s found a way to use rope to lower herself to the WMD. I don’t understand this, but okay. The elevator doors close, and I think there’s an implication Sterling did this.

Trying not to freak-out, Hardison notes, Nate currently can’t talk to them, Sophie’s in custody, and Eliot status is unknown. So, it’s time for Parker to go ASAP.

Back to Nate and Olivia, either she wins, or Nate concedes. Either way, she has a moment of genuine happiness.

Meanwhile, Sterling deliberately sets off alarms.

Olivia is removed by some of BGotW’s security, Nate punches out BGotW, and appearing, Eliot takes care of the armed security who have objections to the second part.

Over to Parker, she manages to open the elevator doors with her bare hands. She jumps down into the shaft.

Outside, Nate steals the sports car to chase after Sterling.

Parker gets up to the roof.

In the car, Nate tells Hardison about Eliot being in the building, and when Hardison finds him, Eliot immediately hugs him. Then, Eliot gets all snippy about the hug he himself initiated. I never liked this until I read this meta about how Eliot might have been chastising himself, not Hardison, when he said, “Stop, dude. What are you doing?”

He explains about being drugged, and giving him another earbud, wonderful future husband Hardison’s all, ‘Hey, would punching some bad guys make you feel better?’

Yes, is the answer, and they go to free their future mother-in-law.

They get there, and Hardison uses pig Latin to explain to Sophie about Sterling drugging Eliot. She offers she’s cool with waiting if Eliot wants to punch even more bad guys, but he decides he’s good.

On the road, Sterling does stop the van.

Back on the roof, Parker doesn’t know how she’s going to get down, but Hardison has his future wife covered: He packed a parachute into her bag. Aw.

Hardison rolls up in a van near where she lands, and once she’s in, he drives her, their future husband, and his future mother-in-law away.

Meanwhile, Nate asks, “When did it become so easy for you to lie?”

It’s revealed Olivia is Sterling’s daughter, and there’s a flashback of Sterling waiting in the room Olivia was locked in by security. “Hello, darling.”

Sterling’s tries to spin it as he didn’t think Team Leverage would have helped if he’d told them the truth, though, I think it would have made more sense for him to go with the not telling this team of enemies about his daughter, but Nate responds, “No, no, Jim. I'm talking about before that, when we were friends. You had a wife and a daughter, and I didn't know. Why?”

Regular readers of my Leverage reviews likely know I view Sterling as being in love with Nate. I know this was not intended by anyone involved in the show, but it’s what makes the most sense to me given the narrative.

So, going by this, I don’t think Nate knows or even suspects Sterling has such deep feelings for him, and this scene here is largely why.

Nate’s all, ‘Hey, remember when we were friends who talked about important things? Since I’m the type who’d tell complete strangers about my wife and little boy, why wouldn’t you tell someone close to you about your ex-wife and daughter?’

On Sterling’s end, he either choose not to pursue any form of custody and possibly not even any visitation, or he lost when he did. If he lost, then, either he decided to give up, or there was a court order preventing him from pursuing further action.

He and Nate are sitting on the roof, the sun’s setting, and Nate’s impressing him with his brilliance when they break down a case they solved. Nate’s talking about no more excuses, you’re definitely coming over to dinner this weekend, hey, did I tell you what Sam did at recess today, Maggie called earlier, she might have traumatised this idiot teacher.

“'Cause, it was my fault that they left. And I knew it,” Sterling answers here.

He wasn’t going to tell this man he kept falling deeper and deeper for about how he screwed up with the woman he made vows to. How he’s not part of his daughter’s life, and maybe, this is actually better for her.

Nate would have been kind and non-condemning. Nate would have offered any help he was willing to accept.

Nate might have looked over and seen who was sitting next to him on the roof. A person in love with a happily married man with a kid.

Sure, Nate would have been kind and non-condemning about this, too, but in some ways, everything would change.

Aside from this, an argument could be made Sterling canonically does try to control how people view him. The Sterling that Team Leverage and the audience see is often not who he truly is. Even if Sterling did just have a casual friendship with Nate, he wasn’t going to let Nate see certain parts of himself.

It’s possible some part of him realised there could come a day when Nate might end up using certain things against him.

Olivia gets out to defend Sterling, and Nate asks why Sterling came to him.

“You’re the best thief I’ve ever seen.”

Possibly also: He knew, even if Nate did go against him, Nate would never harm Olivia.

Though, I really think he should have told Team Leverage from the beginning his informant was a teenager. Even without personally knowing any of them, Team Leverage’s records show they’ve never hurt a kid on any mission and, in fact, have gone beyond to help certain kids.

Asking Sterling to give him information on an unrevealed person, Nate lets them go.

Later, Team Leverage is eating. Eliot makes it clear he’s going to do horrible, horrible things to Sterling someday. The others minus Nate share his disgruntlement. For his part, Nate is glad Olivia is with her father rather than being a prisoner of her stepfather now.

Then, it’s revealed the WMD was successfully sabotaged. Some terrorists managed to blow themselves up with it.

The episode ends with Team Leverage happily talking as they eat. Aw.

Fin.


End file.
